About the blogger

Bob Collins has been with Minnesota Public Radio since 1992, emigrating to Minnesota from Massachusetts where he was VP of programming for Berkshire Broadcasting Co. He was an editor at the RKO Radio Network in New York, and WHDH Radio in Boston. He is the founder of the MPR News’ website. He is a private pilot and flies an airplane he built.

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Big Turd wants to fund his tax cut on the back of Big Bird. Mitt and Ann refuse to show their tax returns for 2005-2009, since their accountants said they paid about 14%, the only reason to hide those returns is the IRS amnesty for rich tax cheats with secret Swiss accounts. After the UBS whistle blower case the IRS let rich tax cheats “pay the fine” instead of trial for the felony they committed. Maybe they should be in the big house rather than the White House.

jon

So it’s an interesting poll question. My take away is that big bird and PBS have a higher favorably ratings then either candidate.

PBS is slightly more divisive then big bird, both are generally more favored then not.

better then 50% favorably rating is good. Especially when 30-60% of the country will turn their beliefs around on a dime to match their parties.

BJ

I wonder if in a year, after the headlines die, if they run the question again how the Yellow dude does.

Yes, Bob, I am firmly in the Bird Bird is male camp.

BP

I grew up with Sesame Street. I didn’t like big bird then and I don’t like him now.

With all the sponsorships and pledge drives, PBS doesn’t need government money- Sesame Street especially.

It’s been over 30 years. How many episodes do we need to produce to teach kids how to count to 10?

Bob Collins

// I am firmly in the Bird Bird is male camp.

I’ve actually met Carroll Spinney before. In my first radio job at a VERY small market station in Southbridge, Ma.

He lived just over the border in Connecticut and came into the station for something — maybe an interview or something. He was really great with the young son of a co-worker, at one point sticking his head in the wastebasket and pretending to talk to Oscar the Grouch (whose voice he also did).

Tyler

BP, you sound more like an Oscar the Grouch kind of guy.

Bob Collins

// With all the sponsorships and pledge drives, PBS doesn’t need government money- Sesame Street especially.

You know the funding mechanism of public broadcasting is actually a quid pro quo, right? So if you’re in favor of eliminating the government contribution, you’re also in favor of removing the restrictions the government placed on public broadcasters, right?

Except that “stable” funding source is kind of like seed money that gives grant-writers and other donors confidence to donate on top of it.

I waffle on this issue, but the head of TPT told me for a story the other day to take a look at the for-profit PBS knockoffs: Bravo, Arts & Entertainment, History Channel. None of those are doing much educational, public-interest programming anymore. So if we value that, we should value that.

If not – then defund it.

But don’t kid yourself that you can defund PBS, let it essentially be a not-for-profit/commerical television station, and you’ll get the same programming. You’ll get more Antiques Roadshow and less Nova/NewsHour.

BJ

Wiki says that he still does Big Bird and Oscar, but they have 2 guys ‘learning’ Big Bird. I can’t imagine at 78 working in the full body puppet gear is easy work.

Chuck

Trivia: My wife’s cousin, Danny Seagren, performed as Big Bird in early 1970 when Carroll Spinney was ill. Danny also took the role on the road briefly about that time.

Despite that family connection, I’m ambiguous about Big Bird. He is fine when confined behind my TV’s safety wall, but I would be pretty freaked out if I actually saw him on the street.

More trivia: Danny Seagren played the role of Spider-Man on “Electric Company,” although tragically, he never had a speaking part in that role, as Spidey “spoke” only in speech bubbles.

bsimon

Anti-american apologists ashamed of our culture don’t like Big Bird.

JackU

I’m going to stay out of the policy argument on funding the CPB and follow the lead of former President Clinton and look at the arithmetic. Since most of us don’t have family budgets in the trillions of dollars, or the hundreds of millions for that matter, I thought it would be useful to see how much the CPB funding is compared to the Census Bureau’s median household income.

According to a few sources the federal budget is about 3.63 trillion dollars. The CPB gets about 430 million dollars. This amounts to .012 % (.00012) of the overall federal budget. The median household income is just shy of 52,000 dollars a year. The comparison amount is $6.24. That amounts to 52 cents per month or about 12 cents per week.